American Interventions and Modern Art in South America

This book tells the little-known story of how the United States used modern art as a cultural defense strategy in South America during World War II. Organized by Nelson A. Rockefeller, the Office of the Coordinator of Inter-American Affairs supported traveling exhibitions of American paintings, furniture and poster design competitions for artists across both hemispheres, widespread distribution of films with South American themes, and circulation of Latin American art within the United States. These exchanges of art and ideas were meant to counter negative views of U.S. culture spread by Nazi and totalitarian sympathizers. Olga Herrera shows how the program was an unprecedented public-private model of support for the arts, a driving force in the emergence of a Latin American art market in the United States, and a foundation for global art networks still in place today.